Official Sony 40",46",52" XBR2, XBR3 Lcd'S NO PRICE TALK! - Page 4

No, only the LCD panels (screens) are made by S-LCD, the Sony-Samsung joint venture. The rest of the set is made by Sony.

OK, thanks for the clarification. I'll check with my Sony contact tomorrow (today?) to see whether the Bravias will have Cable Card slots.

Also, I've added pics of the remotes and the 40-inch XBR2 in red so you can see what it looks like with one of the custom bezels.

As for the 32 incher in the XBR2 line, I just dug through my raw pics and didn't see any. Sorry - guess I was distracted by the 1080p sets.

But here's what the press release stated:

"Rounding out the XBR2 line is the 32-inch KDL-V32XBR2 model featuring a 1366 x 768 screen resolution. It is equipped with Sony's BRAVIA Engine and Live Color Creation, which delivers a sharp and rich picture from standard definition sources as well as high-definition.

The set's narrow, two-tone black and silver bezel incorporates invisible bottom speakers with SRS TruSurroundXT and BBE Digital Enhancement technology.

Other features include a built-in ATSC tuner, single HDMI and PC inputs, as well as two high-definition component, two S-video and two composite inputs."

They should - I thought it was a requirement over in the US to have a card slot if the TV had a digital tuner in it?

I'm wondering if the floating glass design typically involves more glare than the XBR1. Coupled with the piano finish on the XBR3, will that be an issue. Alo, if you end up getting one of the matte bezels, are they permamnent, or can you change them out at a later date? Anyone have a high res of the black matte finish?

thanks

They're now required to have digital tuners, but there's no requirement to have a CableCard. The trend this year has been toward including them only in larger, higher-end sets. Price pressure is too great, and they became an easy thing to cut.

They have the specs up now on Sony Style... just basic stuff... but it is not clear to me besides the bezel, what the difference is between the XBR2 and XBR3. Anyone see something I missed concrete about differences?

MUGEN... I have read that and everything I have found written about the XBR3 and XBR3 so far... and as I said in my post above, they all lead me to believe that only the bezel is different... If that is so, then WHY have a whole separate model?

From everything I read, the 40 and 46 inch XBR2 and XBR3 all have the following specs:
- Native 1080p
- 1080p enabled HDMI inputs (3)
- ATSC tuner
- PC input
- 2 HD component inputs
- 1 S-Video inputs (SonyStyle says 2-S-Video inputs)
- 3 composite inputs
- Bravia Engine Pro
- DRC-MF ver 2.5
- Live Color Creation
- WCG-CCFL light source
- Floating glass design
- Side speakers (SonyStyle says bottom speakers)

Known differences:
- XBR3 = Piano gloss bezel
- XBR2 = Silver bezel standard, replacable by red, white, blue, black, brown

The lower "V" series clearly has these lesser features:
- Bravis Engine (not Pro)
- Bottom speakers
- Only 2 HDMI inputs
- 1-composite
- 2-S-Video
- No floating glass look

So, my question that I am hoping someone may have found some details on regarding the 40/46 XBR2/XBR3 models are:

1) Are there any differences other than the Bezel between XBR2 and XBR3 40/46 in units?
2) Do they support CableCard?
3) SonyStyle states they have "Space saving bottom speakers", whereas the Sony press release states "side speakers"... from the design it looks like side speakers... anyone confirmed in person?
4) Sony Style says 2 S-Video inputs, while the press release says 1 S-Video input.

Yeh thats what im wondering too.Also are the 32's coming in XBR2 models.Also whats the difference bewteen the 32S2000 and 32S2500?

Cut that to 0%. My corporate Sony contact tells me they decided to include CableCARD support only in the SXRD RPTV line, not in the Bravia line this year. There will be no CableCard support on Bravia LCD TVs in the new line.

He did not yet have final specs on the LCD panel response rate from Tokyo.

Sure, I care how it'll look. But what I REALLY care about is contrast ratio, response time and PQ. How come no info on contrast ratio and response time? Is Sony keeping that under wraps? Why? Only reason I can see is (a) CR and RT are phenominal and they want to keep the competition in the dark or (b) CR and RT are not as good as what Sharp, et al has already stated for their coming models. I'm guessing it is the latter.

Thoughts?

(Apologies if this has already been addressed, but I didnt see any posts about it.)

The model I'm looking at is the 37D90U and several sites such as Crutchfield and ABT list it at $3k MSRP.

http://www.**********.com/S-UElAd3Pf...0&I=284LC37D90

http://www.**************.com/product/22661.html

I'd like to see how this 1080P set compares against the Sony 1080P in PQ.

I believe Sharp has even newer models than that coming. Mike53 has hinted as much. He's such a tease!

I'm not doubting this, but it makes NO sense. Why would you choose to include a cablecard on the SXRD but not on the LCDs? What's the reasoning behind that? If you don't want to continue offering it for whatever reason, then wouldn't you just cut it from all of your product lines? What am I missing here?

Any info on whether the QAM tuner will be cut from these sets also?

>>1) Are there any differences other than the Bezel between XBR2 and XBR3 40/46 in units?
>>1) yes xbr3 has a high gloss piano finish, you see this from the pictures in the first post and you posted this info yourself

Thanks for yor reply, MUGEN... we are saying the same thing... the bezel color/finish is the only difference as far as I can tell (besides remote and base color).

I think somewhere I remember someone saying the saw the actual bezels and that the black replacement bezel for the XBR2 was a flat black? Can anyone confirm that?

Jeff

FYI, word is only the 60" and 70" SXRD XBRs will have the cable card, not the 50", 55", and 60" non XBR SXRD sets. Won't make you feel any better, I'm sure. . .

So if thats the only difference Sony can pretty much stick it .

Just my guesses here.

Use of cable cards does not allow use of the programming guides available through your cable provider, Comcast for example. A cablecard does not allow the two-way communication necessary to access the guide and to request "on-demand" services such as pay-per-view movies. So, although people are initially excited about the space saving efficiency cablecards promise, many end up opting for the cable box instead.

I have also been following the JVC 40" 1080p thread. This is a very highly spoken of TV but it appears to have a fan, used only when the cablecard is installed, that generates some degree of noise (has been compared to a computer). It's quite likely the SXDR's have sufficient clearance inside to not require fans whereas the thinner, more constrained LCD's need ventillation for the higher demands of larger screens and the greater processing power required of 1080 (along with Sony's latest hoity-toity scaling engines!).

While I too envy the idea of the cablecard, I would have lined up with the whiners if presence of a cablecard were at the concession of quietness. I have seen articles to the effect that there is some effort to make cablecards two way devices, enabling use of program guides and on-demand services, but the future of this is not certain.

Byrne

Just saw all of these at HE'06. They were each hooked up to a BDP-S1 and looked very good. But not stunning. They were probably all set up for max brightness because during some of the darker scenes of the different demo clips, you could easily see that they all had hazy blacks. I sure that with proper set up, these sets will look killer.

To answer the questions about the bezels, they will be available in a few different colors but you can spraypaint them any color you want or have it done by a paint shop. They had a XBR2 hung on a wall and had painted the bezel the same color as the wall, and combined with acrylic frame, it looked like the image was floating! Very cool.

Oh, and the extra $300 for the XBR3's buys you better speakers ......and thats it!

Why are all you guys hollering for cablecards? If you want more HD stations then support "switched digital". Which would you rather have more HD stations or cablecard ability? The reality is cable companies need to do something to keep up with satellite as far as HD programming.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/indust...ble-hdtv_x.htm

I was thinking this looked feasible from the bezel photos. But the photos show the bezel faces are not smooth; are they perforated to allow speaker sound through? If so, one would have to put a pretty thin paint layer on. If not, how are the speakers directed?

Byrne

lipcrkr,

I don't so much care about the cable card in the XBR... but I do care about cable card in general... I want to use a Series 3 Tivo when it comes out, to Tivo HD content from Comcast and output HDMI 1080 to an XBR2. Without Cable Card, I am stuck with the Comcast DVR or the DirectTV DVR. No Tivo doing HD without analog to digital conversions.

Jeff

AVS sponser MONOPRICE has a product that might solve this problem - allows more holding power so should be able to bend cable without it coming free.